"We like Mike" is Mike Wasserman's slogan in his bid for a Los Gatos Town Council seat, but it might as well be his own mantra.

Wasserman adores basketball player Michael Jordan, attending Jordan's three-day basketball camp in Las Vegas several years ago. At the event, Jordan brought in famous coaches and trainers to interact with the attendees but also warmed up and played with the campers himself. Wasserman recalls a free-throw competition that he trained for months in advance but missed.

"No matter what our age, we were all like kids," Wasserman said of the camp. "I have so many fond memories," Wasserman added, pointing to the framed photographs he's hung on his office wall of himself with Jordan.

Sports has been a major influence on Wasserman's life, with his primary community involvement in youth athletics and his career in retail owning a sports memorabilia store. His daughter Nicole, a sophomore at Los Gatos High School, plays field hockey, and son Sean plays basketball, volleyball and Pop Warner football.

Until two years ago, Wasserman owned Collector's Corner II on N. Santa Cruz Avenue. Wasserman had operated the store for a decade and still maintains an office there, but says selling the business has opened up more time for him to run for town council.

Wasserman is also no longer managing as many shopping centers as he did in the past. "The timing's right [for town council]," Wasserman said. "When issues come up, I can go out to the lot. I can walk the land."

"I want to get in office and then out of the office and into the neighborhood," Wasserman said.

Wasserman's focus is on the neighborhoods in this campaign, and he has made plans to canvas the different pockets of Los Gatos before the month is over. "I'm going to make my goal of reaching 5,000 people by Oct. 31," Wasserman said. "It's all gone better than planned."

If elected on Nov. 5, Wasserman says, he wants to push timeliness and "making things happen as quickly as I would want them to happen."

Wasserman wants to follow Mayor Randy Attaway's example; though Attaway wasn't able to do the construction work for the Los Gatos Town Plaza Park renovation, he was out at the park practically every day and "stayed on top of it."

What the candidate hopes to stay on top of is the parking and traffic situation in downtown. "I think the parking stinks, as does the movement of traffic," he said. Wasserman says the town's current regulations don't work and the town hasn't looked at the source of congestion.

Wasserman admits that he has not read the town's most recent downtown traffic study or the parking management plan but says that from what he knows of it, the new parking zones and different time limits for different areas "aren't solving the problem. What we need to do is to create more parking spaces," Wasserman said.

Another measure that the town needs to take is to slow the growth of downtown by not allowing more density, Wasserman said. Buildings that are two-story should stay two-story and not be permitted to change into a three-story structure.

At the same time, Wasserman supports the Sobrato development. "I'm all for reasonable use in appropriate areas," Wasserman said. "That type of use in that type of area is appropriate."

Wasserman says that while he is a bit hesitant about the proposed 288,000 square feet of research and development space, he approves of the residential element. Affordable housing in Los Gatos is a good thing, he says, although he would have liked to see more than the 135 apartments in the project.

When he's not planning his campaign and learning about town issues, Wasserman and his wife, Kim, take part in their children's activities and are involved with youth sports organizations. Kim is a team mom for the Little League, while Wasserman coaches for Little League. Wasserman initiated a Zero Tolerance for Violence program, which holds Little League parents and coaches accountable for their actions. Last year, Wasserman says, 8 percent of Los Gatos adults signed the agreement to not allow violence in youth sports. Wasserman's goal is to get more and more signatures each year.

The Wassermans were married 22 years ago, just days after they both graduated from college. Wasserman says the couple enjoys going to movies and doing things around their Broadway house when they can. "We're very simple people," Wasserman said. "We're not the kind that need to go to San Francisco all the time."

Mike Wasserman

Age: 44

Occupation: Owns a property and financial asset management company

Education: Bachelor's degree in psychology from USC; certification in financial planning from USC; licensed registered tax preparer.

Community Involvement: Coaches Little League, youth basketball, Fisher Middle School basketball; is a member of the board for National Junior Basketball and Second Chance Foundation; participates in the Community Read-In Program at local schools; created the Little League's Zero Tolerance for Violence program; served on the Little League board of directors for five years

Family: Wife Kim, a daughter and a son